Glogster.edu is a great way to combine many different kinds of tools into an interactive "poster". It is important that you send your students to the .edu part since the Glogster is very versatile and can have many different things as input; audio, video, pictures, clipart, text etc. On the page you click on to signup there are many resources and links to tutorials and as well as examples. Here's an video about Glogster or another explanation. Here is an extensive tutorial and examples of glogs that have been created. Download a file that has many ways to use Glogster here.. Some of you have already used this tool and you have much to teach the rest of us. This site seems to be fairly easy for students to use without a great deal of explanation. Should you decide to use this in your class, your tech coordinator will help you set up your account . Right now there are both free and paid .edu accounts. Lower Division has some 200 of these paid accounts.
A lot of applications these days are moving to the "cloud". That means that they are not installed on your computer but instead reside on the Internet. Advantages of these are that as long as there is connectivity, these applications can be accessed from anywhere. Microsoft has recently gotten into the act with its Microsoft Live platform and your technology coordinator knows about these applications that you can access with your Berkeley account. There is a suite of tools but the Documents suites include a Word Processor, a Spreadsheet, and a "PowerPoint" application.
By far more popular because it has been around longer is the Google Apps platform. I touched on these a bit in the last lesson. When you are logged into your Gmail account, these automatically show up. If you look in the upper left hand corner of your Gmail wl window you see something called Documents. When you click on it, you are taken to the Google Document interface.
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Here are some resources you can use to learn about them and how they might be used in your class. Although there are age restrictions on Google users, we can add users for those of you with younger students using an in-house suite of Google Apps. Tammy Worcester has some basic How-To's at this spot. And this is a webinar I attended that tells about Google Docs for beginners. As a department, we share things that we might want to work on collaboratively as Google Docs and then we can all see and work on them. You can actually load Word or Excel files directly into a Google Doc.And there are more Google Searching opportunities for your students using something like Soople, or Google Squared. And you can set up a Google Custom Search that allows your students to search only on the pages you specify. You can then put that on your blog or wiki. I will be happy to explore this with you further.
There are many more tools in the Google Applications Toolbelt which you can choose to do if you wish. I noticed that there are resources available for all ages on the Google Lit Trips. Here is a You Tube Video about how to use it. You must have Google Earth installed on your computer to make it work. More about it is in the link called Google Applications Toolbelt above.
Those of you with younger children may not want to use Glogster so I am including a some other resources that might be helpful to you. However, Gail Lovely, a person who specializes in working with young children thinks that small children should create Glogs at a very simple level. The other tools might not be Web 2.0 tools but you may find them helpful as you think about using Technology in your classroom. The first is called Computer Centers. They are a nicely arranged set of materials sorted by Grade Level and Subject. Another great place is called ABCYa. When you explore it, keep in mind that it has a terrible interface that is not child friendly. If you find an activity you like, keep that url for posting. Take some time to explore there.There is a Painting Module here or a Word Cloud here. Some educators of younger children are using Shidonni in their classrooms. There is a drawing module and but there is also a log-in. Teachers can set up spaces for their students. The idea is to create an animal or character by drawing it. Then it "comes to life" and can be shared safely with other students. They can play with the creation, feed it, and as they earn points, they play different games. Gail Lovely also shares a link from the British called iboard. You can choose the level of student here and there are links for different curricular areas.
1 point for exploring
1 point for creating a Glogster or getting acquainted with Google Docs or looking at some of the sites for younger students.
1 point for your blog telling whether you think any of these will be useful in your classroom.
Glogster.edu is a great way to combine many different kinds of tools into an interactive "poster". It is important that you send your students to the .edu part since the Glogster is very versatile and can have many different things as input; audio, video, pictures, clipart, text etc. On the page you click on to signup there are many resources and links to tutorials and as well as examples. Here's an video about Glogster or another explanation. Here is an extensive tutorial and examples of glogs that have been created. Download a file that has many ways to use Glogster here.. Some of you have already used this tool and you have much to teach the rest of us. This site seems to be fairly easy for students to use without a great deal of explanation. Should you decide to use this in your class, your tech coordinator will help you set up your account . Right now there are both free and paid .edu accounts. Lower Division has some 200 of these paid accounts.
A lot of applications these days are moving to the "cloud". That means that they are not installed on your computer but instead reside on the Internet. Advantages of these are that as long as there is connectivity, these applications can be accessed from anywhere. Microsoft has recently gotten into the act with its Microsoft Live platform and your technology coordinator knows about these applications that you can access with your Berkeley account. There is a suite of tools but the Documents suites include a Word Processor, a Spreadsheet, and a "PowerPoint" application.
By far more popular because it has been around longer is the Google Apps platform. I touched on these a bit in the last lesson. When you are logged into your Gmail account, these automatically show up. If you look in the upper left hand corner of your Gmail wl window you see something called Documents. When you click on it, you are taken to the Google Document interface.
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Here are some resources you can use to learn about them and how they might be used in your class. Although there are age restrictions on Google users, we can add users for those of you with younger students using an in-house suite of Google Apps. Tammy Worcester has some basic How-To's at this spot. And this is a webinar I attended that tells about Google Docs for beginners. As a department, we share things that we might want to work on collaboratively as Google Docs and then we can all see and work on them. You can actually load Word or Excel files directly into a Google Doc.And there are more Google Searching opportunities for your students using something like Soople, or Google Squared. And you can set up a Google Custom Search that allows your students to search only on the pages you specify. You can then put that on your blog or wiki. I will be happy to explore this with you further.
There are many more tools in the Google Applications Toolbelt which you can choose to do if you wish. I noticed that there are resources available for all ages on the Google Lit Trips. Here is a You Tube Video about how to use it. You must have Google Earth installed on your computer to make it work. More about it is in the link called Google Applications Toolbelt above.
Those of you with younger children may not want to use Glogster so I am including a some other resources that might be helpful to you. However, Gail Lovely, a person who specializes in working with young children thinks that small children should create Glogs at a very simple level. The other tools might not be Web 2.0 tools but you may find them helpful as you think about using Technology in your classroom. The first is called Computer Centers. They are a nicely arranged set of materials sorted by Grade Level and Subject. Another great place is called ABCYa. When you explore it, keep in mind that it has a terrible interface that is not child friendly. If you find an activity you like, keep that url for posting. Take some time to explore there.There is a Painting Module here or a Word Cloud here. Some educators of younger children are using Shidonni in their classrooms. There is a drawing module and but there is also a log-in. Teachers can set up spaces for their students. The idea is to create an animal or character by drawing it. Then it "comes to life" and can be shared safely with other students. They can play with the creation, feed it, and as they earn points, they play different games. Gail Lovely also shares a link from the British called iboard. You can choose the level of student here and there are links for different curricular areas.
1 point for exploring
1 point for creating a Glogster or getting acquainted with Google Docs or looking at some of the sites for younger students.
1 point for your blog telling whether you think any of these will be useful in your classroom.
Have fun.